puerpera

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin puerpera

Noun

puerpera (plural puerperas or puerperae)

1. (obstetrics) A woman undergoing puerperium; a woman whose uterus is still enlarged from pregnancy.
   • 1918, Joseph Bolivar De Lee, Principles and practice of obstetrics, page 813:

     I saw a very serious hemorrhage result from relaxation of the uterus on the eleventh day when the puerpera had been frightened by a domestic quarrel.

   • 1934, Karl Mathias Beierlein, Pamphlets and Reprints, page 350:

     Since one of the principal reasons for keeping the puerpera in a recumbent posture is avoidance of strain upon relaxed and weakened supporting structures by a large heavy uterus, the length of the stay in bed is not made a matter of routine

   • 1984, Erhard Haus, Hugh F. Kabat, Chronobiology 1982-1983, S Karger Ag

     A statistically significant circadian rhythm for urine volume was revealed in 6 of 10 pregnant women in the first trimester and in 6 of 9 puerperas on the 7th puerperal day.

   • 2011, Eberhard Merz, “Ultrasound in the Puerperium”, in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, volume 1, page 39:

     Abdominal ultrasound of the puerpera usually does not require a full bladder, because the enlarged uterus directly abuts the anterior abdominal wall and can be scanned without difficulty.

2. (rare) A woman who has recently given birth.
   • 1731, Robert Boyle, Medicinal experiments, volume 3, page 6:

     An often proved Remedy to bring away what is, or should not be left in the Womb of a Puerpera, though it were Part of a dead Child.

   • 1860, Ignaz Semmelweis, quoted in Henry E. Brady, David Collier, Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers →ISBN, page 224

     I must acknowledge, if Kolletschka's disease and the disease from which I saw so many puerperae die, are identical, then in the puerperae it must be produced by the self-same engendering cause, which produced it in Kolletschka.

   • 1885, Hermann Heinrich Ploss, Max Bartels, Paul Bartels, translated by Eric John Dingwall, Woman: an historical, gynæcological and anthropological compendium, page 150:

     Among the ancient Iranians, the puerpera, like the menstruating woman, was regarded as "unclean".

   • 1907, Henry Jacques Garrigues, A Text-book of the science and art of obstetrics, page 243:

     With the exception of the very nearest, — for instance, the husband and the mother of the puerpera, — visitors should be kept away until she has been out of bed for a few days, and even then admitted only in small numbers and one at a time.

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Italian

Noun

puerpera f (plural puerpere)

1. A woman who has just given birth

Related terms

• puerperio

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Latin

Etymology 1

From puer (“boy, child”) + pariō (“bear, give birth”)

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrpɛrä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrperä]

Noun

puerpera f (genitive puerperae); first declension

1. a woman in labor or in childbed, a lying-in woman

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	puerpera	puerperae
Genitive	puerperae	puerperārum
Dative	puerperae	puerperīs
Accusative	puerperam	puerperās
Ablative	puerperā	puerperīs
Vocative	puerpera	puerperae

Related terms

• puerperium
• puerperus

Descendants

• Translingual:

References

• puerpera in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• puerpera: (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrpɛrä]
• puerpera: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrperä]
• puerperā: (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.raː/, [puˈɛrpɛräː]
• puerperā: (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.ra/, [puˈɛrperä]

Adjective

(deprecated template usage) puerpera

1. nominative feminine singular of puerperus
2. vocative feminine singular of puerperus
3. nominative neuter plural of puerperus
4. accusative neuter plural of puerperus
5. vocative neuter plural of puerperus

Adjective

(deprecated template usage) puerperā

1. ablative feminine singular of puerperus